What if I Stayed? (Thiam Fic)

Chapter Seventeen

A/N: Realized I got Theo's sister's name wrong so I fixed it in the chapter and in this :)

Theo's eyes fluttered open and he had no idea where he was. He was should've been in the changeroom still but instead... instead he was lying down in a tiny metal box. There no room for movement because the box was so thin.

"Scott?" Theo called out, starting to panic. He hated small spaces. "Stiles? Guys? Let me outta this thing!" He didn't know what exactly it was but he wanted out and he wanted out now. His gut told him that something else was wrong was he looked above his head.

A door. 

As quickly as he could, Theo found himself sliding through the small door and falling onto the cold floor with a thud. Grace wasn't important right now, he just wanted out. Theo was still lost and confused as he scrambled to his feet, looking around for his friends.

"Liam?" He yelled, cupping his hands. He needed Liam to hear him. What if something had happened to him? "Liam, can you hear me?"

There was no response but Theo could hear something outside, scurrying around. He looked around, trying to understand where he was when it hit him. He was in the morgue. The fucking morgue. Was he... dead? Did they think he was dead and put him here?

"Guys?" Theo called out again when the crawling outside got louder. He froze, staring at the door to leave the morgue before slowly approaching it. His heart was racing as he creaked it open, preparing himself for some demonic creature.

There was nothing in the hallway and that was almost worse because Theo knew something was there. He heard it, he smelt the way that this whole hallway reeked of rot. Death.

"Theo," A voice hissed down the hallway, echoing like whispers he wasn't supposed to hear. Nope, fuck this. Theo slowly began to back up, staring down the hallway. It was so dark he couldn't see the end of it. His heart was racing and his breath was getting heavier, his body clearly sensing the panic in the air. This wasn't a hospital. It was a dark hallway, somewhere in his mind. A nightmare.

When he saw the figure crawling towards him on all fours, Theo booked it. There was no way he was sticking around to see what it was, real or not. 

"Theo!" It screamed and Theo felt tears well in his eyes as he realized what it was. Rather, who it was. Tara was running after him, looking exactly how she had been the day she died in the water, eight years ago. "Theo, get back here!"

He was racing through the hospital, panic rushing through every part of his body. This was not good. He needed to find someone or find a way to get the fuck out.

"It's just a dream." He muttered to himself between laboured breaths. He'd never had a dream this vivid. This was like it was actually happening. Like this was real life. "Get out of your own head Theo. You can get out of your head."

As every twist and turn of the hallway lead him somewhere darker, he started to lose hope but the screaming of his dead sister kept him going. He wondered if this was what Stiles felt when the Nogitsune was in his mind, twisting reality with fiction. He needed to give Stiles a hug after this because it was a miracle he hadn't just killed himself.

At long last, the front doors of the hospital. The massive glass panes in the empty dark waiting room had never looked so amazing. Theo rushed forward, attempting to open them. They wouldn't budge. Not one fucking inch.

"Theo." It was now a whisper, directly behind him. He turned to see Tara mere feet away from him. Black blood spewing from her mouth, her hair a tangled wet mess and she was still wearing her night gown. "Theo."

"Help!" Theo called as she approached, banging on the windows. "Help me please! Open the doors! Please!" It was like all his werewolf strength had been drained out of him.

"Theo." The voice was sharp, a cold hand grabbing his shoulder and turning him around to face her. He couldn't fight her. This... This was his older sister who read him bedtime stories and played hide n' seek with him when he got scared. Theo couldn't fight her but he also couldn't help her.

"Tara," He choked out, staring into her lifeless eyes, "Tara, please don't do this. I- Please don't kill me. I'm sorry. I'm sorry." He was starting to sob, the guilt and fear too much for him but he knew what was going to happen, that she was going to kill him.

Without breaking eye contact, her sharp claws cut at skin, bone and muscles, earning a sharp gasp out of Theo. She dug her nails deeper into his chest, looking for what she really wanted. The cold dead heart that didn't save her after Theo found her, alive yet dying, in the frozen river that morning. 

"P-please." Theo choked out but Tara smiled as she ripped his heart out with a pop, looking away for the first time to stare at his still beating heart. He fell to his knees, feeling his body give away as his vision turned black.

Theo woke up with a gasp and he was still on cold metal, but there was nothing above him. He grabbed at his chest, still feeling the hole that had been torn into it. He felt his heart beat and nearly choked up.

"Theo?" He turned to his side to see Liam, sitting beside him. He could smell the relief coming off of him, despite Liam having clearly jumped back when Theo had sat up.

"Hey Liam. What's up?" Theo cracked a smile, but his voice broke as he tried to talk. He had just seen his dead sister tear his heart out. It wasn't something Theo could just laugh off. 

Liam practically jumped into Theo, hugging him and pulling Theo closer to his body with werewolf strength. His arms were wrapped around his torso so tightly, Theo couldn't help but feel his own heart.

"I thought you were dead." Liam muttered against Theo's bare shoulder and that's when Theo realized he was shirtless for the first time. 

"It's okay. I'm fine." Theo soothed and hugged Liam back, brushing his soft brown hair with his hand as his best attempt. "It's okay now."

"I should've been with you. To help you." Liam responded, clearly ranting and too upset with himself to listen to reason. His voice was muffled by Theo's skin. "I'm sorry, I should- should've done something more. It's my fault, I knew this was going to happen."

"Unless you were the one actively trying to kill me, it's not your fault." Theo responded, his words soft in a way that they only seemed to be with Liam, "You saved me. I remember, it was the last thing I saw before I passed out. Without you, I would've died."

"I should've done mor-"

"You saved me Liam. You did everything you could, and I'm really fucking grateful you did." Theo responded as the door for the room they were in opened. Scott, Isaac and Malia stood there, staring awkwardly at a shirtless Theo hugging Liam, who was practically shoving his face into Theo's chest and shoulder. It didn't help the hieght difference that Theo was sitting on the elevated table.

"This is gay." Malia said knowingly as Liam jumped backwards, grabbing his coat and mumbling some excuse about school. "Very gay. I can smell it."